New Delhi: More than a decade after a drug-laden parcel was dispatched from a Central Delhi post office to an address in Brighton, East Sussex, United Kingdom, a Special NDPS Court at Rouse Avenue, last month, convicted a Philippine national, Nympha De Jesus, for attempting to smuggle 560 grams of charas or hashish concealed in a black book.
Pronouncing the sentencing order on 22 September, Special Judge Sandeep Yadav sentenced the woman to the exact time period she had already spent in custody, which official Tihar Jail records specify as 6 years, 7 months and 11 days. The sentence also included a fine of Rs 50,000—to be paid within a month, along with one year of rigorous imprisonment in default of payment. The court thus ordered her immediate release, if not required in any other case.
The court held that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had successfully established the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt under Section 23(b) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
However, the court did pull up NCB over “serious lapse” during the probe due to non-cooperation between its Chandigarh and Delhi Zonal Units.
The probe
On 30 November, 2015 at 11.30 am, an Intelligence Officer of NCB Delhi Zonal Unit received an input regarding a suspicious consignment received at the DHL Express Courier office in Kirti Nagar, New Delhi. An NCB team raided the facility at 12.30 pm.
Upon inspecting the parcel, officials retrieved a black book. A hidden cavity in the front and back covers had 560 grams of dark brown charas. Attached to the parcel was a shipping invoice, with a copy of Philippine passport naming the consignor as Nympha De Jesus.
NCB officials tracked postal registries, Paharganj hotel ledgers, embassy verifications and airport look-out alerts.
Investigation revealed that the parcel was originally accepted at Connaught Place Post Office on 15 November, 2015, before transfer to DHL for overseas processing. A Central Forensic Science Laboratory report, dated 8 February, 2016, confirmed the substance to be charas. Postal assistant J.C. Mehra testified that De Jesus had personally presented her original passport and visa for identity verification during booking, and positively identified her in court.
Foreign Regional Registration Office (FRRO) records obtained on 21 December, 2015 linked her passport to budget hotels in Paharganj. Registers showed she stayed at two different hotels on multiple dates between 2013 and 2015.
A hotel manager corroborated her stay and identified her during trial, while verifications from the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Embassy on 16 March, 2016 confirmed the authenticity of her passport and visa.
Arrest at airport
Because De Jesus had exited India shortly after sending the package, NCB authorities had issued a Look Out Circular (LOC). On 7 September, 2016, the NCB Director formally alerted immigration officers to prevent her departure upon any future entry.
On 4 November, immigration staff intercepted De Jesus at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport as she attempted to board an outbound flight. During her airport detention, officials seized an additional 2.7 kg of charas from her possession. She was formally placed under arrest on 5 November.
What happened in court
After a formal complaint was filed on 3 January, 2017, charges were framed against De Jesus on 2 August later that year.
Prosecution examined 16 witnesses during the trial, and a key evidentiary pillar was the testimony of an NCB official who verified the raid and recovery. Because the defence team did not cross-examine him, Special Judge Yadav held under Supreme Court precedent (Muddasani Venkata Narsaiah vs M. Sarojana) that his account stood legally admitted.
Senior Public Prosecutor Shantanu Jugtawat and Special Public Prosecutor for NCB Manish Gupta appeared before the court, while the accused was represented by advocate Gaurav Chandok.
The court rejected defence’s argument that third parties had stolen or misused her passport copy, ruling that once prosecution proved her ID was attached to the parcel, the burden shifted onto her to prove misuse—a burden she failed to discharge. Her plea of alibi claiming absence from Delhi was similarly dismissed as unsupported by evidence.
Finding no physical discrepancies in the contraband, the court ruled that procedural omissions did not invalidate the seizure.
According to the report submitted by the Superintendent of Tihar Jail, De Jesus had served her trial custody until 15 June, 2023, when she was granted bail. After her conviction, the defence counsel argued for leniency, saying that she had already spent over six and a half years in jail. She also has a 15-year-old child who is dependent on her and would be adversely affected if she were sent back to prison, the advocate told the court.
Conversely, NCB argued that the sentence should match the gravity of the offence to deter potential foreign drug offenders.
However, the court gave her the ‘benefit of Section 428 CrPC’, which provides for setting off the period of detention undergone by the accused against the sentence of imprisonment.
Court raps NCB over internal non-cooperation
Special Judge Yadav, however, pulled up the NCB over administrative lapses. The judgement noted that despite formal letters sent on 10 December, 2015 and 23 November, 2016, the Chandigarh Zonal Unit of NCB failed to furnish Call Detail Records (CDR) and Customer Application Forms (CAF) for a suspect mobile phone associated with Himachal Pradesh.
Expressing surprise at inter-office friction within the same agency, the judge wrote: “It is surprising that one official of NCB at Chandigarh is not co-operating with other official of NCB at Delhi in connection with investigation of (the) present case. No sincere and positive efforts were made at the higher level of NCB to verify the address of (the) accused and to obtain CAF and CDR of mobile number of accused.”
He added, “This serious lapse on the part of officials involved in the investigation of this case deserves the attention of (the) Director, NCB.”
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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